India must get Swiss accounts details: Rajnath

With the Swiss government's refusal to share information about Indians holding accounts in its banks, BJP president Rajnath Singh on Monday said India should mount diplomatic pressure on that country to get the details.

"I think the Indian government should build up diplomatic pressure on Switzerland so that the black money of whichever country is deposited there can be exposed," Singh said.

The BJP had made the stashing away of illegal money by Indians in Swiss banks and other tax havens abroad a poll issue during the recent Lok Sabha elections. It had promised to bring back the money if voted to power and said the amount would be used to fund several welfare schemes.

This had led even the Congress to announce that it would take steps in this direction within the first 100 days of assuming power.

However, Swiss government refused to share the details. "India cannot simply throw its telephone book at Switzerland and ask if any of these people have a bank account here," a top official at Swiss Bankers Association told PTI from Basel on Sunday.

Singh said if the American government could get the names so could we. Germany and Ireland have also succeeded in getting names of account holders from their country.

Meanwhile, the CPI(M) said the government was responsible for getting details of Indians who have stashed away illegal money there.

"When the US government can get the list of persons (who have illegally stashed money in Swiss banks), why can't the Indian government…It is the responsibility of the government. How can there be double standards," CPI(M) Politburo member Brinda Karat said.

Maintaining that "lakhs of crores of rupees" have been kept in the Swiss banks, she said the Left parties had demanded action by the government on the issue.

"We do not have any authentic knowledge about what has been going on. In the Parliament, the Finance Minister had made a categoric statement that the government was talking to the Swiss authorities," Karat said, adding that if this money could be brought back to India, it could be used for various developmental activities.

She was replying to questions on reports that Swiss banks were saying India was not welcome there on a name-fishing expedition. "India cannot simply throw its telephone book at Switzerland and ask if any of these people have a bank account here," a top official at Swiss Bankers Association had said from Basel.